Running
by Clara Barton
Summary: They looked at each other in silence and Trowa wondered why neither of them ran away from what they saw. A very angsty 2x3 for Valentine's Day fic for Nicovera


A/N: A Valentine gift fic for Nicovera who requested some 2x3 angst-smut with a Duo shower scene. VERY happy to oblige!

Title from the Milky Chance song (and I listened to the whole Sadnecessary album while writing this).

A/N #2: This is about as far from a happy V day fic as I can get without including character death. This will NOT be everyone's cup of tea.

Warnings: angst, smut (of the extremely rough sex variety), language, violence, DARK. There is NO surprise fluffy ending here so consider yourself warned.

Pairings: 2x3

 _Running_

"Hey dirt-eater, you want some _jianbing_?"

Trowa adjusted the duffel bag on his shoulder and brushed past the street vender, ignoring both the insult and the alluring smell of the crepes.

He waded through the food carts and junk stands arrayed just outside of the shuttle port security line with the same annoyed determination he always felt when confronted by them.

Other colonies were like this - travellers ambushed with junk and food as soon as they cleared quarantine check - but there was something about L2 street culture that made it so much more invasive here.

Maybe it was the children running around, playing or at least pretending to play while their nimble fingers glanced over pockets and rifled through bags; maybe it was the way prostitutes practically gave out free samples no matter what time it was in the day cycle, no matter if the police were watching; maybe it was the way Trowa could feel everyone's eyes raking over him, cataloguing his build, writing him off as a Terran, a dirt-eater they felt nothing but contempt for. It could have been all of those things or any of them.

"Remembrance Day coming up soon - you need a token, dirt-eater?" An elderly woman waved a plastic figurine in Trowa's face. It was, ironically, of the Gundam Heavyarms.

"I can remember it just fine," Trowa assured the woman.

Her eyes narrowed at him as she tried to determine just how he was insulting her.

"Yo! Dust-collector!"

That insult was only slightly less derogatory than being called a dirt-eater.

Trowa looked away from the woman and saw a familiar black-clad figure a few meters away.

No one was attempting to sell shitty war memorabilia to Duo Maxwell. In fact, it looked as though most of the street venders, kids and prostitutes were cutting a wide swath around him and eyeing him uneasily.

Trowa couldn't blame them.

Duo didn't fit in, even here.

Even though his black clothing was the same combination of well-worn leather that most spacers preferred, Duo wore the clothes like armor and his body language broadcast danger and violence to the degree that even the civilians knew to shy away from him.

"Fancy meeting you here," Duo smirked at Trowa as he walked over to him.

Trowa arched an eyebrow.

"You meet at an agreed upon location at a prearranged time?"

"Yeah. Fancy, ain't it?"

"I don't think that's what that means."

Duo shrugged and took Trowa's duffle.

"I can carry my own bag, Trowa protested.

"You just got off a nine hour flight. You're tired or weak or something."

Trowa rolled his eyes and sighed.

There was no point in arguing with Duo, he would just find new digs to make against him.

So Trowa let Duo hoist the duffle over his shoulder and then followed the other man through the crowded L2 streets until they arrived at the junkyard Duo and Hilde ran.

It looked like business was going well - the pile of unsorted scrap was fairly high and the one story building on one corner of the lot that served as the office looked as though it had been repainted since the last time Trowa had visited three months ago.

Duo threaded his way through the piles of junk towards the back of the lot and the cottage Duo and Hilde shared.

"Home sweet home," Duo said as he opened the door and carelessly tossed Trowa's duffel to the ground.

Trowa looked around.

"Hilde here?"

"No she's colony hopping - meeting some buyers. She'll be back in three days - you staying that long?"

In the six years since the end of the war the five pilots had drifted apart. Heero and Wufei, working for the Preventers, kept in touch only through sporadic and barely informative emails. Quatre had taken over Winner Interstellar and had tried in vain to organize an annual meeting for them. Only the first year had been successful, each of them fabricating excuses to avoid Quatre's future plans for a reunion. It had been a few months after that first year and the meeting at Quatre's home on Earth when Trowa, working for the circus, found himself on the same L2 colony that Duo and Hilde's scrapyard used as a headquarters. A few months after that, Duo showed up at one of the circuses performances in L5 while he was there on business. A pattern had developed over the years with Duo arranging his schedule to align with the circus dates when he could and Trowa visiting Duo in L2 during the down time he had at the circus. He usually stayed for a week or so at a time when visiting Duo, while the other man's visits to the circus were cut short to a day, two at the most.

"Probably not," Trowa predicted.

Duo raised his eyebrows at that but shrugged.

"You need anything? Hungry? Thirsty?"

"That depends on whether your water recyc unit's been repaired."

Duo rolled his eyes.

"It worked _fine_."

"The water tasted like charcoal."

"Yeah well that's because we use charcoal to purify it."

Trowa arched an eyebrow.

"And maybe I had to replace a few of the filtration pumps on it. So, yeah, it's been repaired."

Trowa had to smirk at that admission.

"I take it you want a glass of water now that it's up to your mud-lover standards?"

Trowa gave Duo a look and the other man smirked before leading Trowa into the kitchen.

He was used to the insults, after all these years in space. It didn't seem to matter to Duo - or any colonist Trowa encountered - that Trowa, while born on Earth, had no memories of life before becoming a colonist and had fought in a _war_ on the side of the colonies. He would be a dirt-eater, dust collector and mud-lover to these people no matter what he did.

Trowa accepted the glass of water Duo handed him and sipped from it cautiously.

Duo leaned back against the kitchen counter, arms folded over his chest, and watched Trowa drink the water.

There was something predatory, feral even about his gaze.

Trowa felt an all too familiar jolt of adrenaline at that look.

"You tired?" Duo asked as he took the empty glass back from Trowa and set it in the kitchen sink.

Duo turned back to Trowa with an eyebrow arched, a silent question for him.

Trowa arched an eyebrow back and Duo sneered before closing the space between them and slanting his mouth over Trowa's.

The kiss was fierce, Duo's lips unforgiving and his tongue forceful as it plunged into Trowa's mouth.

Trowa groaned and staggered back a step when Duo bit down on his lower lip.

He pulled back to glare at Duo.

The other man pushed Trowa back against the wall of the kitchen and Trowa winced as his head hit the wall.

Trowa swallowed the bitter, metallic taste of his own blood and reached out for Duo's braid. He wrapped the hair around his hand and jerked Duo against him.

Duo's eyes narrowed and he kissed Trowa again, a clash of tongues and teeth that was going to leave both of them with swollen mouths.

Trowa shoved his hand down the back of Duo's canvas trousers and dug his fingers into the flesh of his ass.

Duo made a sound of protest and tried to push Trowa's hands away. They grappled for a few minutes, knocking over a chair in the process and slamming against the 'fridge unit with enough force that Trowa knew he would have a bruise on his hip.

Finally, Duo pressed him against the door frame, his elbow pinning Trowa in place while he used his free hand to roughly jerk at Trowa's belt.

Trowa felt the heightened mix of lust and anger that Duo always aroused in him.

Duo's gaze was dark, his blue eyes unfathomable as he shoved pulled down the zip of Trowa's trousers and then shoved them down his thighs.

The hand on Trowa's cock wasn't the the caress of a lover, but there was a searing intimacy to the way Duo worked over his flesh, bringing him to full erection.

Trowa tried to move but Duo just shoved his elbow higher so that his forearm crossed over Trowa's shoulders and chest.

Duo leaned close and pressed his lips against Trowa's throat, teasing at his racing pulse.

Trowa closed his eyes and sucked in a breath when Duo bit down, none too gently, before sucking at the spot. That would definitely leave a mark.

Duo pulled back, laving at the abused flesh before trailing his tongue up Trowa's neck, across his jaw and to his ear.

Duo's breath was harsh, just as ragged as Trowa's as he worked his fist over Trowa's cock.

Trowa turned his head, catching Duo by surprise when he kissed him again.

Their tongues fought for control and Trowa used the distraction to dislodge Duo's hold. He grabbed Duo's wrists as the other man struggled to regain control and raised them above his head, shoving him against the door frame where only moments before Trowa had been trapped.

Duo snarled, never thrilled when Trowa managed to get the upper hand.

Trowa lifted the hem of Duo's shirt and pinched his right nipple, hard enough that Duo swore and tried to shift away. But Trowa held him in place, shoving a knee between his legs when Duo tried to tangle his feet between Trowa's in an effort to upset his balance.

He could feel Duo's hard cock and he rocked forward, applying pressure.

Duo moaned and humped against him.

Trowa lowered his mouth to Duo's other nipple, licking and then sucking until he heard Duo moan again. He bit down and Duo cried out at the pain.

It was always like this, had been since that first night at the circus when they had shared a heated look over the coffee Cathy had insisted Duo share with them in their trailer after the show. Trowa had walked him out after, had wondered if Duo was going to act, and then almost immediately Duo had slammed him against the side of the trailer, one hand shoved into Trowa's mouth to muffle his grunt of surprise while the other methodically unfastened his trousers and jerked him off. Trowa had bitten into Duo's hand, had dug his fingers into Duo's scalp and hip but he hadn't pushed him away, hadn't wanted to. The encounter was quick, the violence and shock of it bringing Trowa to orgasm quickly. Duo had wiped his hand off on Trowa's shirt and walked away without speaking a word. The next day Trowa had tracked down Duo's scrapyard and cornered the other man as he worked on repairing an engine fuselage. Duo's hands had been filthy and slick with grease and he hadn't been able to find purchase while they fought. Trowa had shoved him face down onto a work table and returned the favor.

It was always violent, always raw and vicious and Trowa knew it was left-over from the war. Aggression and hatred that lingered and warped into physical attraction. It was as if they were re-enacting every conflict they had ever had, each time, and even when they were sated, unfocused and stained with cum, there was a dangerous coil of energy between them.

Trowa straightened up, forcing his leg back against Duo's groin and the other man writhed at the sensation.

Trowa reached down and massaged Duo's cock through the canvas trousers. Duo pitched forward, riding Trowa's thigh with erratic motions.

He was close, his blue eyes mere slits and his lips parted just enough to let out harsh exhalations.

Trowa moved his hand away from Duo's cock, back up to his face and he eased his thumb into Duo's mouth, letting him bite down on the flesh instead of crying out as he came.

He watched Duo shudder, felt the wet, hot stain of his cum and the boneless way Duo surrendered to his own ecstasy.

Duo sucked in a deep, steadying breath but Trowa leaned down, kissing Duo until he was breathless again and Trowa could feel his own erection start to return.

He stepped out of his shoes and kicked off his underwear and trousers, anticipating what came next.

Duo's fingers dug into his hips, thumb curving around an old knife wound.

Trowa stepped back, allowed Duo to move and the other man led the way to his bedroom, stripping out of his own clothes beside the bed and watching while Trowa removed the last of his.

The bed had felt surreal, the first time. After all the hard edges of furniture, walls and dark alleys the softness had been a surprise.

Duo pushed Trowa down onto the mattress and straddled him, bare ass trapping Trowa's cock against his own body.

Trowa ran his hands over Duo's thighs, over his ass and up his back, curving his fingers so that his nails dragged along Duo's skin.

Duo shuddered and pulled sharply at Trowa's hair. Trowa could see that Duo's lips were already swollen, his lower lip a little bloody from Trowa biting him earlier.

It was always awkward, when Duo visited the trailer and left Trowa bruised and occasionally bloody the next morning. More than once Trowa had had to borrow Cathy's makeup to cover up marks on his face or chest before performing again but the woman never said anything, never questioned him or Duo. Trowa wondered what Hilde thought when she saw them. Duo never made an effort to hide the injuries and without a paying audience to please Trowa found he didn't care much either. He had seen Hilde's eyes narrow when she noticed a particularly nasty bruise on Duo, had felt the cool heat of her glare when she saw the indention of Trowa's teeth on Duo's wrist and the purple and red of broken vessels just under the skin.

Duo leaned down and kissed him again, swallowing Trowa's groan when Duo cupped his balls and squeezed.

Trowa jerked his hips upward, his cock stabbing against Duo's perineum hard enough that the other man grunted in pain.

Duo continued to kiss Trowa while massaging his balls, completely ignoring Trowa's cock until Trowa turned his head away from Duo's mouth and pushed at his head.

Trowa's earlier torture of Duo's nipples was avenged, Duo sucking and biting at Trowa's nipples until Trowa jerked Duo's braid in warning.

He moved lower, sucking on the smooth raised scar of the knife wound that so attracted him. It would bruise, Trowa knew. Duo always did that - always left him with at least that mark.

Finally Duo turned his attention to Trowa's cock, taking the weeping head into his mouth and scraping his teeth against the shaft as he deep-throated him.

Trowa found himself holding his breath.

Duo was a murderer, a barely reformed terrorist who was capable of gruesome acts of violence. He was a man who had every reason to hate Trowa, to want revenge and he had Trowa's cock in his mouth.

Trowa was always aware of it, of the danger this man posed, and he knew it wasn't rational for that knowledge to fuel his desire but then, he doubted anything that passed between he and Duo could be construed as rational.

Duo's mouth and throat were tight around him, the wet heat enticing and Trowa thrust his hips up, forcing Duo to gag as Trowa buried his cock to the hilt.

Duo dug his thumbs into Trowa's inner thighs, the pain spiking Trowa's already elevated heart rate and Trowa threw his head back.

Pain, he knew, wasn't supposed to feel this good.

He continued to fuck Duo's mouth, knowing he was going too deep, too fast; knowing that Duo's mouth and throat would be left raw.

Trowa shoved Duo's bangs off his forehead so that he could see Duo's wide eyes and bulging cheeks.

Duo looked furious, a look that should have had Trowa pulling away and reaching for a weapon. But he was also hard again, his cock smooth and firm and wet against Trowa's knee. Whatever anger Duo felt, whatever motivated him to torture Trowa, whatever it was, Duo was able to balance himself along that edge without completely falling into the abyss.

Trowa could feel himself approaching climax, could feel a warmth and pressure build in his groin and he found it hard to keep his rhythm steady.

Duo sensed the shift, the loss of control on Trowa's part and he moved one hand back to Trowa's balls, squeezing again with painful intensity and it sent Trowa over the edge.

He bit down on his own lip, overwhelmed as he ejaculated deep in Duo's throat. He could feel Duo struggle to swallow and the contraction of his throat muscles urged more semen from Trowa's cock. He gripped Duo's head, holding him in place while he gave one last thrust, spending himself entirely inside the other man.

When Duo sat back on his heels there was a trickle of saliva and semen on one side of his mouth that he wiped away with the back of his hand. He was breathing just as hard as Trowa was, his eyes just as unfocused as Trowa knew his own were.

They stared at each other and Trowa wondered what it was that drove them to do this. He wondered if he turned to Duo in an effort to escape the darkness within himself or if he turned to Duo because it was so easy to burrow into the darkness within the other man.

After a few minutes, once he had steadied his breathing, Duo got up from the bed and walked out of the room.

Trowa heard the sound of the water recyc unit and he pictured Duo, braced against the wall, drinking the water to ease his throat and drown the taste of Trowa's cum.

When he came back into the bedroom his cock was flaccid, nestled against his pubic hair and only the shiny smear of precum the evidence of his earlier arousal.

Duo crawled onto the bed, laying down on his stomach and turning his head towards Trowa.

They looked at each other in silence and Trowa wondered why neither of them ran away from what they saw.

-o-

When he woke the next morning the space beside him was cold.

He could hear the sound of the shower unit and assumed it was Duo, and not Hilde returned early, making use of it.

Trowa rolled over to look at the time. It was only a few hours into the morning cycle, the light still gray as it filtered in through the window above his head.

Trowa debated the futility of trying to go back to sleep.

It was ironic that alone in his own bed he barely managed to get in an hour or two of sleep before nightmares work him up but that in Duo's bed, after what amounted to unarmed combat, he slept the entire night without interruption.

He heard the shower cut off and a few minutes later Duo walked into the bedroom, toweling his hair dry.

Trowa looked over his body, saw the red, swollen marks on Duo's hips, chest, neck and lips where bruises would start to show in the next day or so.

Duo looked up and quirked an eyebrow at Trowa's attention.

Trowa had seen Duo naked hundreds of times and he knew the other man's body as well as he knew the anatomy of his worst nightmares. But he had never seen Duo with his hair loose, never seen it wet, never seen Duo perform a task so ordinary as toweling it dry.

Maybe Duo realized the source of Trowa's interest. He frowned.

"I thought you were dirt-side for the next month," Duo said, his voice defensive.

Trowa sat up in bed, bringing his knees up so he could rest his arms on them.

"We were."

"Yeah, get your permit cancelled for lewdness again?"

That had happened, more often than Trowa cared to remember. Usually it was a direct result of one of the circus troupe _refusing_ to offer sexual attention to a local government official.

"Not this time."

"Then… you just decided to hell with it, no more high wire for you?"

"No more high wire for any of us," Trowa corrected.

Duo grabbed a comb from the top of his dresser and hesitated before sitting down on the edge of his bed, back to Trowa.

Trowa felt his fingers itch with a visceral need to touch Duo's hair. He swallowed an offer to comb Duo's hair for him.

He was willing to bet his life that Duo would rather walk into the kitchen and chop off his hair before letting Trowa or anyone else comb it.

"What does that mean?" Duo asked, looking over his shoulder.

"The troupe disbanded. We've been in the red for the past two years and there was too much debt to keep going."

"No shit? I didn't even realize things were bad for you guys."

"You think we liked to use broken down equipment and outdated tech because of the aesthetic?"

Duo's lips twisted.

"You're the one who parades around in suspends and a fucking clown mask. You gonna tell me the lack of a shirt was due to budget cuts as well?"

Trowa watched Duo work through a tangle, mesmerized by his lithe fingers and the tendrils of dark hair.

Duo had moved on to braiding his by then mostly dry hair before he spoke again.

"So what are you gonna do now? Take Quatre up on his offer to work security for him?"

Trowa snorted derisively.

Not only were Quatre's repeated offers of employment offensive to Trowa, but the very thought of putting on a uniform and sitting behind a desk to watch monitors all day made him contemplate suicide.

Duo secured his braid and got up to put the comb away.

Trowa watched him move, watched the play of muscles in Duo's lean body and though how much he resembled a wild animal.

Duo turned to see Trowa's eyes on him. He leaned back against the dresser and folded his arms across his chest.

"Mars," Trowa answered Duo's question.

"Mars?" Duo echoed in disbelief, his lips forming the word as though he was saying it for the first time.

Trowa nodded.

"Why the fuck are you going to Mars? Earth not dusty enough for you? You gotta find another piece of shit planet to live on?"

"Zechs offered me a job. He needs someone with my skillset."

Duo arched an eyebrow.

"Yeah? There a lot of lions to tame on Mars?"

There was a layer of anger underlying Duo's usual cutting remarks that gave Trowa pause.

"I think he wanted me more for my skills with machinery. And politics."

Zechs had been surprisingly blunt when he contacted Trowa. Noin had finished her six years on Mars and decided to return to Earth. Zechs needed someone he could trust to help him administer the growing, fractious ESUN outpost on Mars and Heero had already turned him down. The offer had come a few months before the troupe officially disbanded, but even by then Trowa had known things were nearing an end. Even though Trowa had accepted, had given Zechs a timeframe for his departure to Mars, he had come to see Duo with the vain hope that he wouldn't have to take the job. That there was another option for him.

Duo scowled.

"So what - you're just going to take off for that rock and not look back? Hell, it'll take at least four months before a re-hab shuttle goes out that way again, I'm betting. What are you going to do in the meantime?"

"A shuttle launches from the moon on Tuesday."

The scowl left Duo's face and his features transformed into a cruel smirk as he did the math, as he realized that this plan had been set in motion months ago.

"One last fuck before you leave?" Duo guessed. He nodded and pushed away from the dresser.

Trowa watched him warily as Duo walked over to the nightstand beside the bed, watched him grab a tube of lubricant and flip it onto the bed.

"Duo -"

The braided man grabbed one of Trowa's ankles and jerked him flat onto his back.

Duo's eyes were narrowed in determination, his jaw locked so hard the muscles flared out in his cheeks. He knelt between Trowa's legs and Trowa waited for the next blow to land.

But when Duo touched him again his touch was light, the whisper of a feather against Trowa's thigh as his palm smoothed over the sensitive flesh.

Trowa caught his breath as Duo neared his soft cock. He closed his eyes in anticipation when Duo's fingers curled around him.

But there was no sharp tug, no tight grip. Just a caress. Just the slow pull of skin, up and down, up and down until Trowa's cock was hard and leaking.

Duo lowered his head and licked the precum, lapping at it before he swirled the flat of his tongue around the head of Trowa's cock and then drew the entire length into his mouth.

Trowa was frozen, transfixed by the sight of Duo practically worshipping him. He felt the anxious roar of blood in his ears. He waited for the pain, waited for Duo's furious energy to overtake them both.

His mouth still wrapped around Trowa's cock, Duo reached for the lube with his hands and spread a generous amount on his right hand before trailing his fingers over Trowa's perineum and then teasing at his anus.

Duo had never teased him before. Not like this. He always used plenty of lube, always took care to make sure that whatever pain Trowa felt during penetration wasn't from his own carelessness. But he was never _gentle_.

One finger pressed into him, tracing over the ring of muscle before venturing deeper. Trowa could feel a glance of pressure on his prostate and he involuntarily jerked his hips forward, thrusting into Duo's mouth.

Duo put his free hand on Trowa's belly, holding him in place while he added a second and then a third finger.

Trowa lay there, feeling almost helpless as Duo fingered him and continued to suck on his cock. He didn't understand what was going on, didn't know how to process just what the fuck was happening. He hadn't even known that Duo was capable of this.

Duo moved away, Trowa's cock still connected to his lips by strands of saliva until Duo sat back on his heels and wiped them away.

Trowa watched Duo add more lube to his hand, watched Duo stroke his own hard cock, smoothing lube down its length before he angled it against Trowa's anus.

He entered in one smooth motion, filling Trowa up so completely that Trowa could feel Duo's groin against his ass.

Now. Now had to be the moment when Duo lashed out, when Duo punished him by setting a brutal pace, by fucking him so roughly that Trowa would be left sore and unable to sit comfortably for days.

But Duo pulled out halfway and then slid back in, slowly, _gently_.

Trowa glared at him, unable to find the words to express his dismay at Duo's treatment of his body.

Duo looked back at him, his eyes as blank as his face. He reached down between their bodies and started to stroke Trowa's cock in time to his own thrusting hips, never breaking eye contact.

The only pain Trowa felt was the sharp, unwelcome sensation of burning in his eyes.

Duo came with a grunt, his hips twisting as he buried himself deep and even that, even that moment of uncontrolled movement was somehow made gentle.

He continued to work his hand over Trowa, continued to urge him towards orgasm and when Trowa at last came he felt like he had been betrayed, felt a horrible emptiness feel his gut that had nothing to do with release.

Duo pulled out and used the towel he had abandoned earlier to wipe off his flaccid cock and then Trowa's ass, his touch so damned light that it made Trowa want to scream.

He watched Duo toss the towel into one corner of the room.

"Gotta go collect something from the repair shop on the other side of the colony," Duo said.

He walked back to the dresser and pulled out clothes.

Trowa stared at him, watched Duo dress as though nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

"You'll probably be gone when I get back," Duo continued.

The words felt like a knife stabbing into him.

Duo sat on the bed to lace up his boots and then he paused, turning his head slightly but not fully looking at Trowa over his shoulder.

"Don't let those bastards give you too much grief for being mud-born. Lot of the guys out there are hard-core spacers. But you're one of us."

It was the nicest thing Duo had ever said to Trowa.

Duo got up from the bed and walked out of the room. A moment later Trowa heard the front door open and then slam closed.

So much for Trowa's hopes. So much for his nightmares.

-o-

The End

SO I'd like to try something.

While I WILL be working on updates for my WIPs, I'd also like to make March my 31 days of smut personal challenge. I want to try to post one fic a day, each day, that is nothing but pure smutty smut.

I'd like to take submissions. If you've got some Gundam Wing smut you've wanted me to write or wanted to read, well, it's your lucky month.

I will tackle any pairing, any setting, any kind of theme with the sole exception of non-con.

Send me an ask with what you want. It can be as vague as "2x3 angst-smut" or as detailed as "Cathy x Noin college roommate AU."

I'm up for the challenge (I hope).

I'm going to go ahead and start taking requests now (if anyone is interested) and keep the requests open until I reach 31 or until March 1st.

TL;DR: Help me. Tell me the smut you want.

(And I really am in the middle of updating Going the Distance and Unexpected Development. Sideshow is on the backburner atm but it WILL get an update soon).


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